Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet announced - Thinnest, Lightest and Waterproof

The Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet was officially announced today during Sony's MWC event as the new slimmest and lightest tablet of its class, beating out its own sibling the Sony Xperia Tablet Z.

The Xperia Z2 Tablet has a 0.25" (6.4mm) in thickness, and weighs only 15 ounces (426g) for the Wi-Fi model, and 15.5 ounces (439g) for LTE/3G model. This makes it the thinnest and lightest 10 inch tablet. Sony has also managed to keep this slim beauty water proof, which is always an added bonus when you are selecting a device suited to your needs.

Sony used its OmniBalance design language, with the signature circular power key, creating a well-crafted slate with soft edges and pretty looks. When paired with the company's BKC50BT Bluetooth Keyboard and Tablet Cover Stand, the Xperia Z2 Tablet becomes a versatile office warrior, too. You can accessorize it for entertainment and telephony as well, with Sony's new BSC10 Bluetooth Speaker dock with Magnetic Charging Pad, the DUALSHOCK3 wireless gamepad, or the BRH10 Bluetooth Remote with Handset Function, that lets you make calls with the LTE/3G variant of the slate.

Just like with the Xperia Z2 flagship, Sony is using its new LED display technology for the Triluminos Full HD screen on the Xperia Z2 Tablet. Called Live Colour LED, it uses red and green phosphor with blue LEDs, and has tailored color filters on top, that allegedly produce brighter and more evenly spread lighting. The end result should be more vibrant colors on the display, yet without the accompanying oversaturation of, say, OLED displays. In addition, Sony's X-Reality for mobile tech analyzes the image output in real time for artifacts, colors, sharpness and contrast, and makes sure the digital noise is boiled down to a minimum. Some may scoff at the resolution, given that we have high-end slates with 1600p screens, but most of those use an alternative PenTile "diamond" pixel matrix arrangement, while the Z2 Tablet's 1200p is still more than enough for most purposes

The Z2 Tablet is powered by the fast 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801, which is a vast improvement over the Snapdragon S4 Pro that last year's Tablet Z shipped with. The Xperia Z2 Tablet also comes with 2 GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal memory which can be expanded through microSD. This processor will be just a step below Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 805, which won't be in devices before the summer, which will ensure the Z2 Tablet relevancy in the silicon department at least until next year's edition.

The new tablet comes with a dual stereo speaker setup that is called S-Force Surround Sound, just like on the Xperia Z2 phone, also offers its Digital Noise Cancelling technology that weeds out up to 98% of the ambient noises when listening to music via Sony's MDR-NC31EM Noise Cancelling headset. The 6000 mAh battery is cited to last the usual 10 hours on a charge, but the Z2 Tablet now takes advantage of Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 technology, which enables the slate to charge up to 75 percent faster. The 8 MP Exmor RS camera sensor on the back sports all the bells and whistles you'd expect from one, like Sony's automatic Scene Recognition mode, or its HDR photo regime.

Press Release

Software and Release

The Xperia Z2 Tablet will be arriving some time in March, and there will be a choice of two colors - black and white housing. The tablet will run the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat, and there will be plenty of enticing entertainment offers to go along with your purpose, like six free blockbuster movies from Sony Pictures, and a month of Music Unlimited trial to get you hooked up. Needless to say, with the tablet's IP58 certification, you can watch said free movies in the bathtub, and all that is left now is for Sony to seal the deal with the retail pricing scheme.